LAHORE, May 24 (PTI): Pakistan’s Punjab provincial cabinet on Friday approved registration of more cases against jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party members for inciting hatred against state institutions, particularly the Pakistan Army.
“The Punjab Cabinet led by Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved legal action against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and other party leaders for creating a hate narrative against national institutions,” Punjab Information Minister Asma Bokhari said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting on Friday night.
He said Imran Khan was trying to become Bangladesh’s Mujibur Rehman. He said those who met Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail were also following his lead and spreading hatred against the institution.
She said the Punjab government was likely to prosecute Khan and his aides for writing an article in a British newspaper about the journalists’ complaints.
Khan, 71, a former cricketer turned politician, has been in jail since August last year in a number of cases. He faces around 200 cases.
Khan, writing in The Telegraph earlier this month, claimed that the military, under the direct leadership of Chief of Army Staff General Asim Muneer, had tried every tactic to eradicate the party’s presence from Pakistan’s political landscape but had failed.
“The suppression, torture and denial of our electoral symbols have been extensively documented, but nothing has worked for the military and its impotent civilian leadership acting as its puppets. Pakistan’s February 8, 2024 general elections have shown the complete failure of that plan. In the absence of a single electoral symbol in a country where the majority of voters are guided by party symbols, the people overwhelmingly voted for candidates supported by my party, the PTI, despite them running as ‘independents’ with diverse symbols.” Khan further said that this democratic revenge of the Pakistani people against the military’s plans is not only a national rebellion by the people, but also a complete rejection of the official national narrative of May 9, 2023, when PTI supporters were falsely accused of attacking military installations as a pretext for a crackdown.
“Instead of accepting the people’s mandate, the army was outraged and the election results were rigged to bring the losers to power. The constitutional functioning of state institutions must be restored. The army has done all they could against me. All they have left is to kill me. I have openly said that if anything happens to me or my wife, General Asim Muneer will be held responsible. But I am not afraid as my faith is strong. I would rather die than be a slave,” Khan said. PTI MZ AMS
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